Contra Aid Request On Hold, Shultz Says

November 11, 1987|By Nathaniel Sheppard Jr., Chicago Tribune.

WASHINGTON — Secretary of State George Shultz said Tuesday that the Reagan administration will make no further requests this year for new military aid for U.S.-backed rebels trying to overthrow the government of Nicaragua.

The announcement appeared to indicate that the administration was abandoning its effort to provide military support to the rebels, known as contras, at a time that officials had said was crucial to the rebels`

survival. The White House said only a few weeks ago that it would seek $270 million in new contra aid, despite considerable bipartisan opposition in Congress.

U.S. aid to the rebels ran out Sept. 30 amid pleas by the administration that Congress appropriate additional funds to help the contras meet the challenge of a Nicaraguan force better equipped with Soviet weaponry.

Shultz`s announcement, in a speech before the General Assembly of the Organization of American States meeting in Washington, was the

administration`s second conciliatory gesture in two days.

Although White House sources indicated nearly two weeks ago that the administration would not request new military aid for the contras before January, confirmation by the secretary of state appeared to soften U.S. pressure on Nicaragua`s Marxist government as Central American leaders seek to implement a regional peace plan. The plan is the focus of the meeting of the Organization of American States.

On Monday, President Reagan told the organization`s delegates the U.S. was prepared to reopen direct talks with Nicaragua, as part of broader negotiations with other Central American nations, once the Sandinistas engage in ``serious`` cease-fire negotiations with the contras.

Shultz addressed the group a day before Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega was scheduled to do so. Ortega, who arrived in Washington Tuesday on his first visit to the U.S. capital since 1984, is expected to stress Nicaragua`s desire for direct, unconditional negotiations with the U.S.

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said Ortega would hold no official talks with administration officials during his visit.

But Ortega, in an apparent effort to force the issue, said Tuesday that if Reagan agreed to receive him, he would consent to the presence of rebel leaders at the meeting. Ortega made the offer in an interview with the New York Times as he flew to Washington.

It was the first time any official of the Sandinista government had announced a willingness to meet directly with contra leaders under any circumstances. Indirect talks are expected to begin soon with Miguel Cardinal Obando y Bravo, the Roman Catholic primate of Nicaragua, as mediator.

U.S. financial backing for the estimated 10,000 to 12,000 contra troops has been sporadic, totaling about $275 million since the contras were organized in 1982. The contras also received about $20 million in aid from other countries acting at U.S. behest.

Two months ago the administration stepped up the frequency and stridency of its criticism of the Nicaraguan government and announced plans to seek the $270 million to be given to the contras over an 18-month period.

But since then the administration has found itself isolated as international and congressional sentiment embraced a Central American peace plan that, among other things, calls for an end to foreign assistance to insurgent forces in the region.

While saying the administration is ``convinced that the military and political successes`` of the contras had led to the peace plan, Shultz said the administration will nonetheless ``seek no further military assistance for the resistance until next year.``

``This does not mean we will sit idly on the sidelines if the Sandinistas try to strike for a military victory,`` he said. ``We will not abandon the resistance fighters to face advanced Soviet weaponry and Cuban advisers with the resources exhausted.``

Neither Shultz nor other State Department officials provided details of other measures the administration might employ to assist the contras.

The administration was rebuffed several times by House Speaker Jim Wright (D., Tex.); Sen. Claiborne Pell (D., R.I.), chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and other congressional leaders who said a new aid request had little chance of being approved while the peace accord was being implemented.

During the past month, administration officials have softened their anti- Nicaragua rhetoric. Officials initially described the peace accord signed in Guatemala City on Aug. 7 as ``fatally flawed,`` but they now say there are signs of hope it can be successfully implemented.